Forget 5G: 6G Is Going To Be Really Cool

almost 4 years ago

The telecommunication's industry is awash with excitement over the introduction of 5G technology. It is the next generation of wireless communication which is going to be remarkably faster than today's existing 4G technology.

Even though 5G is just starting to be rolled out, some are already looking towards the 6th generation of wireless technology.

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Samsung is one of the largest telecommunication company in the world. They are a leading proponent of 5G implementation. That is not stopping the company from looking forward to the next iteration.

The company believes we will see the first systems going live in 2028 with mass implementation coming in 2030. This is beating the forecasts of many.

It also believes that standards will be laid out within the next year or two. This is in alignment with the path that 5G took.

We must keep in mind that 5G is a massive jump in speed over 4G. However, the next phase will make 5G look slow.

Given that the 5G standard already enabled massive boosts in data bandwidth and reductions in latency over 4G, the questions of what more 6G could offer — and why — are key to establishing the need for a new standard. On the “what” side, Samsung expects 6G to offer 50 times higher peak data rates than 5G, or 1,000Gbps, with a “user experienced data rate” of 1Gbps, plus support for 10 times more connected devices in a square kilometer. Additionally, Samsung is targeting air latency reductions from 5G’s under 1 millisecond to under 100 microseconds, a 100 times improvement in error-free reliability, and twice the energy efficiency of 5G.

The obvious use cases are autonomous vehicles which require low latency and factory-scale automation. There are some other advanced technologies that will be tied in.

Holograms are something that is being experimented with yet are affected by the slow transmission rates. This will not be a problem with 6G. We also could see the introduction of "digital twins". Many believe we are moving towards a time when our physical world will be overlaid with the digital. We will "enter" areas in our digital form first before doing it physically.

This is some of the potential of Web 3.0.

It also shows the inter-connectivity of technology. A great deal of what is envisioned is possible except for the fact that the communication system is lagging. Oddly, this is often the case. Much of the progress over the last few decades is due to the massive progress made in our communications system.

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We are also on a trend where we overhaul our wireless system every decade or so. Thus, it is not far-fetched to think that 6G will be rolling out around 2030. We are now seeing a massive push to build out 5G systems across the developed countries.

Of course, we cannot overlook the fact that Elon Musk is in the process of launching an Internet satellite service that will cover the entire planet.

One of the reasons why technology is marching ahead at such an accelerated pace is because of the starting point we are at. Thinking about the possibilities presented by 5G is pretty amazing. Yet they will be dwarfed in a decade by 6G.

In the meantime, there are a number of issues that will have to be overcome. As with all technology, the path from lab to implementation is not without obstacles. The engineers are going to have to spend much of the next decade trying to figure out how to resolve all the issues that are before them.

And so it is with technological progress.

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